Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Just so no one gets their undies in a bunch...I want to underscore that the "Bitch Factor" is a widely used term in attempting to understand the bias towards women, in particular in business and politics...and for a little reading (and a pretty good definition I might say) I would point you to http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/4653 ...which has a definition from the Urban Dictionary...

So continuing on this topic for a bit longer, I would want to try to offer some positive examples...and I immediately think of the CEO of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi who is generally doing a great job...and created a new motto for the firm..."Performance With Purpose" and says "If all you want is to screw this company down tight and get double-digit earnings growth and nothing else, then I'm the wrong person"...pretty refreshing stuff in the nutty world of corporate earnings and growth that is screwing up a whole bunch of firms (I would recommend you read Small Giants by Bo Burlingham as a good primer on this topic)....and for more on Ms. Nooyi check out the March 3, 2008 copy of Fortune...

Which I guess leads to my point...which is that Ms. Nooyi is just a single example of women having a positive influence and are gaining increasing status in business positions of great power...and that more and more firms are recognizing the sense of balance that women (especially leaders) can bring...and in creating a sense of community both inside and outside the firm...so I would want to point us to the positive rather than the negative on this topic...and you could take a look at Meg Whitman at EBay or even even someone like Rebecca Pollock of Nielsen Construction whom I have had the privilege of getting to know in recent months...see http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=45461171.9473233.1643954.5934972.293098.717&aID2=126449 and http://www.bizsandiego.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=537&Itemid=2 ...for my San Diego students generally and female in particular Rebecca is a wonderful example of a woman in business that I believe is a role model for all...unfortunately I have not seen the same thing in politics but perhaps that is due to the "shrill" nature of the political arena...but I want to think on it a bit more...

At the end of the day it is unfortunate that we even have to have such conversations...but I believe it is getting better...and there are some great firms out there that are partnerships between spouses...and what is true of partnerships generally is very true of spousal partnerships, specifically, the need to carve out each spouse's own particular area of expertise...and let them each lead and work in that area...for the overlap is where confusion and conflict comes...in my experience and observations...